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Ceylon and Beyond: Hugh Karunanyake on Antiquarian Books

Hugh Karunanayake : “Collecting Antiquarian Ceylon Books,” .Victor Melder Lexture …. Sunday 30 April 3pm-4pm ……Clayton Hall, 264 Clayton Road

Sri Lankan-born Hugh Karunanyake is a collector of unique antiquarian books about Sri Lanka, and has established an extensive personal library that extends to maps, prints and old postcards. For Hugh, the collecting of knowledge and ephemera has never been purely about acquisition, but also about the sharing of knowledge.

With a B.A. in Sociology from Peradeniya University in Sri Lanka, Hugh has worked across both public and private sectors. He was the founding president of the Ceylon Society of Australia and is a prolific writer about all things Ceylon and Sri Lanka.

The Victor Melder Lecture honours the work of Victor Melder and the extensive library of books, journals and magazines relating to Sri Lanka that he established in 1968.

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Port Project in Solomon Islands for China

Reuters Item, 22 March 2023

The Solomon Islands has awarded a multi-million-dollar contract to a Chinese state company to upgrade an international port in Honiara in a project funded by the Asian Development Bank, an official of the island nation said on Wednesday.

The United States and its allies, including Australia, New Zealand and Japan, have held concerns that China has ambitions to build a naval base in the region since the Solomon Islands struck a security pact with Beijing last year.

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Aussie Athletic Meet in Adelaide on 11th February 2023

THE ADELAIDE INVITATIONAL

Date: Saturday, 11 February 2023 at 6:30pm

Location: SA Athletics Stadium, 145 Railway Terrace, Mile End, SA

Events in 2023: Triple Jump, Discus, Pole Vault, 100m, 200m, 800m, 1500m, 3000m Steeplechase, 5000m

The Australian Summer of Athletics tour returned to Adelaide in 2022 with the Adelaide Invitational on February 12. Australia’s best athletes head to SA to compete and earn World Athletics ranking points in an attempt to qualify for Commonwealth Games and World Championships. The event in 2023 looks to be even bigger and better as Athletes aim to qualify for the World Championships. 

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Dil Jayawardena: An Outstanding & Upstanding Lady

Nan, in the Island, 18 December 2022, where the title runs thus: 

 I had met, listened to, read, and spoken to Elmo Jayawardena. Admired him very much too. He invariably brought his wife into any public address he made or personal conversation. Hence my emails conveyed my regards to Dil though I had not met her. Then I did. I invited the two of them to visit and as she stood in my doorway smiling so friendly, I immediately warmed to her. I felt she was a friend I knew so well. I was struck by the fact that there was no remarkably outstanding facial feature in Dil but she was truly beautiful, very beautiful. I surmised her loveliness was because her warm and generous personality shone through. She gives the impression of sincere friendliness and puts one at ease.

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Buried Truths about Sri Lanka: A Confrontation in the House of Lords

Malinda Seneviratne in Malinda’s Blog Spot, December 2022, where the title runs thus “Truth in 2031, reconcilaition and how?”

The early versions of Udayasiri Wickramaratne’s celebrated theatrical piece ‘Suddek Oba Amathai (A white man addresses you) contained a short soliloquy, ‘Baya Vunu Minisek Oba Amathai (A scared man addresses you).’ The man was essentially scared of two things: a) that he would speak the truth even when he wanted to deceive, and b) that he would do the right thing by mistake.

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Punishing Rajiv Gandhi: Two Moments

Michael Roberts 

The Thuppahi items on the Assassination of Rajiv Gandhi have recently attracted a range of “Hits” …. that is, visitors/viewers. I am puzzled as to why; but list them below – with added reference to the first hit on Rajiv on 30th April 1987 when a Sinhala nationalist seaman from Ratgama attempted to assail him for imposing what is known as the “Indo-Lanka Pact” on Sri Lanka in a conscious move to assist the Tamil liberation movement. Wijemuni De Silva’s blow in fact hit Rajiv’s shoulder in a glancing blow because of the Prime Minister’s quick reaction. It could have been fatal (see “Clobbering …….…,” at https://thuppahis.com/2019/08/08/clobbering-rajiv-gandhi-as-chastisement-in-1987-a-guti-dheema/).

 

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Hungary defies the US-Europe Combo on Russian Oil

AFP News item: 15 September 2022, where the title runs thus “EU lawmakers say Hungary no longer a ‘full democracy’,”

Hungary was described as “a hybrid regime of electoral autocracy” in “serious breach” of EU democratic norms”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A Cliffhanger! Sri Lankan Cricketers overcome Stiff Bangladesh Total

Andrew Fidel Fernando, in ESPNcricinfo, 2 September 2022, where the title runs “Sri Lanka: merely lucky, or back to punching-above-weight ways?”

In a match that swung wildly one way, then the other, the optimists among you had reason enough to believe this Sri Lanka team is resurgent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Asitha Fernando (left) on T20I debut hit the winning runs for Sri Lanka — AFP/Getty Images Continue reading

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Rajiva Wijesinha on the Riots of July 1983

Rajiva Wijesinha,  being Chapter 7, entitled “The Riots of 1983,” in his book JR Jayewardene’s Racism, Cold War Posturing and the Indian Debacle, …. pubd in 2021 by Godage & Co 

 

The initial outbreak

The sixth anniversary of the election of 1977 fell on July 22nd. JR summoned his conference for the week previous to that. But not one single opposition party turned up, only his own UNP and Thondaman’s CWC. The absence of the others made it clear that no one was willing to continue playing a game in which the President not only held ail the cards, but also changed the rules as and when he required.

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At Last! Sri Lankan Women’s Cricketers beat Indian Women … at Dambulla

ESPNCricinfo Report

Sri Lanka 141 for 3 (Athapaththu 80*, de Silva 30) beat India 138 for 5 (Harmanpreet 39*, Rodrigues 33, Ranasinghe 1-13) by seven wickets
Sri Lanka had lost their last 12 T20Is against India, and had never beaten them in a home game. But all that was put to rest as their captain Chamari Athapaththu led them to a seven-wicket win in the final match of the three-match T20I series in Dambulla. The hosts managed to salvage pride after conceding the series with back-to-back defeats.

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